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Fortune: Apple is world's most admired company

For the third straight year, Apple takes top honors in survey published by Fortune. Google places second overall, with Amazon in the fifth spot.

Jim Dalrymple Special to CNET News
Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and the Mac industry for the last 15 years, first as part of MacCentral and then in various positions at Macworld. Jim also writes about the professional audio market, examining the best ways to record music using a Macintosh. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. He currently runs The Loop.
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Jim Dalrymple

Fortune on Thursday released its annual list of the world's most admired companies and topping that list is Apple. Another tech giant, Google, placed second overall.

Apple

To collect its data, Fortune asked businesspeople to vote for the companies that they admired most, from any industry. This is the third straight year that Apple has taken the title of most admired company, but this year it also took the top position in the computer category. Last year, it was second in the category.

In the computer category, Apple is followed by HP, EMC, Xerox, Dell, Canon, Seagate, and Western Digital. The computer software category is lead by Adobe, followed by Oracle, Intuit, Symantec, and Microsoft.

Businesspeople were asked to rank companies in such areas as innovation, quality of management, and quality of products/services. The survey was done in partnership with Hay Group, a management consulting firm. The list of participants was put together from July through September and surveys were sent out in October.

"What makes Apple so admired? Product, product, product," Fortune said on its Web site. "This is the company that changed the way we do everything from buy music to design products to engage with the world around us. Its track record for innovation and fierce consumer loyalty translates into tremendous respect across business' highest ranks."

According to the survey, the Top 10 admired companies overall in the world are: Apple, Google, Berkshire Hathaway, Johnson & Johnson, Amazon.com, Procter & Gamble, Toyota Motor, Goldman Sachs Group, Wal-Mart Stores, and Coca-Cola.